LEWIS ERSKINE 1957-2021
Lewis Erskine was an esteemed editor in the documentary field with over 30 film credits, but he did not set out to edit. His first job was mixing sound for clubs, concerts and vinyl records. Eventually he began to edit news for local TV stations and ultimately landed at WNET where he edited the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour. Eager to explore long-form documentaries he landed a gig at a company that produced progressive documentaries and later moved on to work with legendary African American producer, St. Clair Bourne.
That’s when he began telling stories about the heart and soul and the struggles of Black people.
Over the course of his career, Erskine collaborated with many directors – Shola Lynch, Ken Burns, Michael Moore, Walter Cronkite, Bill Moyers and, perhaps most importantly Stanley Nelson with whom he edited nine films. His credits include “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords,” “Jazz,” “The Murder of Emmett Till,” “Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners,” “Cesar’s Last Fast” and “Miles Davis-The Birth of Cool.” Erskine won an Emmy (2011) and an ACE Eddie (2012) for his work on Nelson’s “Freedom Riders” for PBS’s The American Experience. He was also an advisor at Sundance Institute Documentary Edit Lab five times in 11 years and most recently, was an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Erskine was a member of American Cinema Editors and a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“When I have sat in a dark screening room with five or 500 people and they catch their breath where I want them to catch their breath, when they laugh when I want them to laugh, when they cry because they understand the pain of someone far away and yet right there, a smile of deep gratitude comes to my face.”
Lewis Erskine
